A geared drive hub assembly for a printer cartridge containing a geared hub drive removably engaged with a spool.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,972 of Kameyama Yoshikatsu discloses an ink ribbon cartridge having a particular spool and spindle arrangement. The spindles used in the device of this patent each have one end which includes a disk shaped section, and a spindle portion 64 which includes projections 65 and 66 disposed 150 degrees apart from each other (see FIGS. 11 and 12).
The spindles disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,972, although they have some limited utility when used with the spools disclosed in such patent, cannot readily be used with other spools. Furthermore, they tend to fail when more than a minimal amount of shear force is applied to the projections 65 and 66 and, in general, have inferior mechanical properties.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel spindle which can be used with many different spools and which has improved mechanical properties.
In accordance with this invention, there is provided a geared drive hub assembly removably engaged with a spool. The drive hub contains a gear integrally connected to a spindle assembly. The spindle assembly contains three stepped splines integrally connected to each other and to a base; and the spool is comprised of means for removably engaging each of the three stepped splines.